Harvest Home Farmer’s Market makes it possible for farmers to bring fresh produce to low income neighborhoods in New York City. Harvest Home was started in 1993 by Martiza Wellington Owens. She was asked to create a market at the hospital where she worked. At the time, she was the only one who was able to successfully run a farmer’s market in inner city neighborhoods, so other organizations asked for her help to open a market in their neighborhood. Now there are 22 markets in the Bronx, Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn. This year, Harvest Home was the recipient of a $90,000 grant from the USDA for Farmer’s Market Promotion Program (FMPP) to expand consumer access to healthier food. These grants are aimed at increasing the availability of fresh, local products in these self-identified “food deserts”, and making sure they are affordable.

The Irvin Stern Foundation continues their commitment to helping under-served populations with a grant to the Prison University Project. Funding helps the organization’s College Program, the central project of the Prison University Project. It provides approximately 12 college courses each semester in the humanities, social sciences, math and science, as well as intensive college preparatory courses in math and English, to approximately 200 men at San Quentin. All faculty in the Program work as volunteers. Click here for more photos of the College behind bars.

Irvin Stern Foundation recently committed funding to support Turnaround For Children, New York City, as part of the Foundation’s support for alternative and entrepreneurial education initiatives and educational reform. Turnaround helps transform the worst performing early-education schools by creating a safe, calm, positive environment. Working with local school administrators, the Turnaround Approach is to “parachute in” an instructional support team and a student intervention team to deal with severe behavioral and mental health needs. Turnaround is currently in 24 schools serving almost 10,000 students and, this school year, will launch three programs in Washington D.C., and the entire district of Orange, New Jersey.

As part of the Irvin Stern trustees’ long-standing interest in a peaceful and stable region, the Foundation renewed their support of the RAND Corporation plan for building a viable Palestinian state. The Palestine Arc Project, developed in collaboration with Suisman Urban Design, is an architectural and urban development plan to provide the country with an arc shaped transportation and infrastructure corridor. An 8-minute video can be viewed at the Friends of the Arc website. The complete 30-minute video is available at the RAND Corporation’s website.

The Fall Trustees meeting of the Irvin Stern Foundation will be Saturday, October 16, 2010 at the foundation’s offices, located at the Tree Studios, 4 East Ohio Street, Chicago, IL, 60611.
In addition to the consideration of grant requests, the Trustees welcome special guest, Skip Schrayer, the Chairman of the Jewish United Fund of Chicago Federation Board.